Positive psychology interventions (PPI) to increase positive emotions, positive behaviors, and positive cognitions have been demonstrated to decrease depression and enhance well-being. First attempt at using PPI for smoking cessation has been recently implemented, and preliminary results on the feasibility and acceptability of PPI for have been reported. The present study examined the possibility of using PPI with task, such as using strengths, writing blessings, active responding and savoring to facilitate smoking cessation. Moreover, new methods of using 24 strengths for smoking cessation have been proposed. Future studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy of PPI for smoking cessation; to stop smoking at the beginning, to prevent relapses during follow-up, and for maintaining a life without smoking.

Problems related to smoking by minors were reviewed over the time course and minors were investigated. Based on the legal definition in Japan, minors were defined as young people under 20 years of age. Active smoking (smoking by one's own will) and passive smoking (breathing secondhand smoke) were not distinguished, because it is difficult to judge which type of smoking caused a given problem, and because no specific problems are caused by any one type of smoking. Problems encountered in the nascent period, from pregnancy to the embryonal stage, are infertility and unwanted pregnancy, which sometimes leads to later child abuse. In the perinatal period, from mid-pregnancy to one year after birth, low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) have been associated with smoking. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis was reviewed. Problems in infancy and early childhood, from one year of age to elementary school age are accidental ingestion, abuse, lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, infant asthma, and otitis media. Problems encountered in the elementary school period are asthma, chronic respiratory symptoms and gingival pigmentation. Problems in adolescence, from junior high school days to 20 years of age, include generational chain of smoking, misunderstanding the Act Prohibiting Minors from Smoking, and difficulties in treatment. Finally, the concept of third-hand smoke is described. It was concluded that anyone could be affected by problems involved in smoking, when they are around a person who smokes.

Varenicline is a popular smoking-cessation drug used in medical facilities in Japan. In this article, we have described our smoking-cessation treatments, and indicated five possible roles for health psychologists in clinical settings. (1). Smoking-cessation increases benefits and reduces disadvantages. It is important for health psychologist to inform patients about cognitive changes resulting from continued treatment, because continuing with smoking-cessation gradually increases benefits and reduces disadvantages. (2). Receiving praise by health psychologists, nurses and doctors is effective for patients to maintain behaviors leading to smoking-cessation. (3). Health psychologists could help patients enhance smoking-cessation behaviors by exploring preceding conditions of such behaviors using a smoking diary, and teach patients how to avoid these preceding events. (4). Health psychologists could conduct relaxation training, which is a recommended treatment for stress management that is known to be effective for suppressing nicotine withdrawal symptoms. (5). When a patient is invited to smoke, assertion skills are useful for refusing the invitation. Health psychologists could provide assertion skills training to maintain smoking-cessation behaviors. It is also suggested that a multicenter study of smoking-cessation be conducted in the future to assess the effectiveness of treatment by health psychologists.

The general health conditions of schizophrenic patients have not been investigated to date, though their high mortality is considered to be mainly caused by smoking. This study examined relationships between smoking and mental disorders, as well as importance of providing support for people with mental disorders to help them stop smoking.

Importance of smoking cessation for preventing lifestyle-related diseases was focused and studies on exercise intervention programs for facilitating smoking cessation are reviewed. In Japan, traditional programs for facilitating smoking cessation for preventing lifestyle-related diseases have been developed and conducted in hospitals, schools, and companies, and have targeted patients with lifestyle-related diseases. However, to date, there are only a few programs designed to provide support from the perspective of preventing smoking and lifestyle-related diseases, or case studies demonstrating the efficacy of such programs in Japan. It is suggested that exercise and physical activity are important for preventing lifestyle-related diseases and for smoking cessation. Exercise intervention programs for smoking cessation have been conducted in Europe and the United States, whereas to date, support for smoking cessation combined with exercise, is not a well-known practice in Japan. There is also a need to develop exercise intervention programs that are feasible in daily life, and to conduct more studies on the effects of exercise interventions on various symptoms, such as withdrawal, craving, and urge experienced during smoking cessation. It is expected that programs aimed at preventing lifestyle-related diseases and smoking relapse would be practically used in the future.

The possibility that lifestyle factors such as smoking and sleep-wake habits could affect incidents caused by nurses was investigated. Nurses (N=1,622, 1,515 women and 107 men) participated in this study. We analyzed data on female nurses (n=557, 32.2±8.9 years: 36 [6.5%] smokers, 464 [83.3%] non-smokers that had never smoked, 57 [10.2%] non-smoking former smokers) who completed all questions related to their smoking status, their sleep-wake habits assessed by the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, and the Incidents Index for Hospital Nurses. Results indicated that 434 (77.9%) nurses were of the evening type, and 123 (22.1%) were of the morning type, and smokers experienced significantly more incidents than did non-smokers. Nurses who were evening-type smokers reported marginally significantly higher rates of incidents than nurses who were morning-type smokers. Moreover, the ratio of non-smokers who were former smokers was significantly higher in the morning type than in the evening type. It is concluded that smoking affected incidents caused by hospital nurses. It is also suggested that a morning-type lifestyle could facilitate smoking cessation.

Effects of support for smoking cessation that combined physical exercise and nicotine patches on withdrawal symptoms and the desire to smoke were investigated when conducting smoking cessation programs with young smokers. Participants (N=8) continuously conducted smoking cessation for three days by participating in one of the following conditions per day: (1) quitting smoking by themselves without any information on available smoking cessation methods (control condition), (2) quitting smoking using nicotine patches (Nicotine Replacement Therapy condition: NRT), and (3) quitting smoking through a combination of physical exercise and nicotine patches (NRT+Exercise condition: NRT+Ex). The control condition was conducted on Day 1, NRT condition on Day 2, and the NRT+Exercise condition on Day 3. The results indicated there were no differences in withdrawal symptoms depending on the condition. On the other hand, NRT+Ex condition was more effective on the desire to smoke, compared to the control and NRT conditions. The above results suggest that support for smoking cessation that combines physical exercise and nicotine patches are useful for young smokers in reducing the desire to smoke, which is one of the impulses leading to smoking.